in Recife, death by cervix cancer are more frequent among adult, black, single, housewives, women living in poor neighborhoods and attended to at national health system hospitals, with differences in death risk among age ranges and living place.

PURPOSE: to identify sexual dysfunctions in patients with cancer of the uterine cervix submitted to exclusive radiotherapy, using the high dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy technique. METHODS: a descriptive transversal study from January to June of 2004. The study involved 71 selected patients who had been followed in the pelvis outpatient clinic from the Hospital do Câncer de Pernambuco and selected according to the established profi le. Data were collected from a structured questionnaire, complemented by a gynecological exam aimed at investigating complaints of sexual dysfunction after the radiotherapy. Epi-Info 6.04 was the statistical program used to process and analyze the data. Descriptive analysis was done through the mean, median and range. Bivariate analysis was done through the Marginal Homogeneity and McNamara's tests, considering 5% as the level of signifi cance. RESULTS: among the gynecological complications identifi ed, we can highlight fi brosis, stenosis and vaginal atrophy (98.6%, 76.1% and 71.8%, respectively). The sexual dysfunctions identifi ed were: frigidity, lack of lubrication, excitation and orgasm in 76.1% of the cases, lack of sex drive in 40.8% and vaginism in 5.6% of the cases. CONCLUSIONS: sexual dysfunctions are frequent in patients with cancer of the advanced uterine cervix treated with exclusive radiotherapy using the protocol of HDR. Specifi c attention should be given to the sexual anamnesis and the gynecological exam during these patients' attendance.